Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles is a 3D fighting game developed by CyberConnect2 and its DLC character packs brings us two playable characters with Tengen Uzui and Nezuko Kamado Advanced Demon Form, here’s our first impressions on them.

Before we get on with the first impressions, here’s a little preview of what the game is about in case this is your first time hearing it:

Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles

Adapted from the events of the first season of the anime series, along with the Mugen Train Movie, the game’s single player story mode follows Tanjiro Kamado as he joins the Demon Slayer Corps and faces off against various demons in order to turn his sister Nezuko, who has become a demon, back into a human.

The story features some exploration elements, and is told through various cutscenes and boss battles with demons seen in the anime series. The Hinokami Chronicles also features a versus mode, where players form teams of two fighters from the roster and battle CPU opponents or other people. The game supports both local and online multiplayer.

Playable Characters

The character pass for Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles offers a list of additional characters from the Entertainment district arc from the anime, and these characters are:

• Tengen Uzui Character Pack
• Nezuko Kamado (Advanced Demon Form) Character Pack
• Tanjiro Kamado (Entertainment District) Character Pack
• Zenitsu Agatsuma (Entertainment District) Character Pack
• Inosuke Hashibira (Entertainment District) Character Pack
• Daki Character Pack
• Gyutaro Character Pack

While all these characters can only be played in the VS mode, there are currently only two playable character at the moment while the rest of the characters will be fully available in December this year. The Sound Pillar Tengen Uzui and the awakened Nezuko Komada Advanced Demon Form are the playable characters and the game does a pretty good job with the character models where they look just like they are in the anime, down to their movement and even skills.

Tengen Uzui

The god of festivals is back and is stylish as ever. Tengen Uzui focuses on fast paced attacks with his nunchuck-like Nichirin Cleavers. During my time of trying out Tengen, I personally feel like his skill set is pretty straight forward where his combos are easy to pull off and his movement is pretty fast which makes him a very beginner friendly character to try out.

Tengen has a list of special moves with his Fourth Form: Resounding Slashes and Fifth Form: String Performance which can be seen from the anime. But there are also two skills that are exclusive in the game which are Rising Kick and his Ultimate Art – Fifth Form String Performance, Bursting Bloom.

Rising Kick: Tengen Uzui takes a forward front-step followed by a high-rising side-kick launching their opponent into the air.

Fifth Form: String Performance Bursting Bloom: Tengen Uzui engages at their opponent unleashing a flurry of rotating slashes and chops with their swords. The final hit launches the opponent high in the air, making the user toss a plethora of explosive beads while throwing their chained swords in a boomerang-like style cutting all the beads to detonate them.

Being the flamboyant shinobi he is, it’s only natural to have all his skills to look flashy as possible and the game manages to deliver. The animation for all his skills are gorgeous and filled with style and accompanied with the fireworks and the lively Entertainment District map, the self-proclaimed God of flashiness does live up to his name.

Nezuko Kamado (Advanced Demon Form)

Awakened to new powers, Nezuko Kamado’s attack are slower and it’s harder to land combos compared to Tengen’s but to make up for her slowness, her attacks pack some serious punches. Since she’s a demon, you’re unable to bring in teammates with you and of course, she doesn’t have any breathing styles. Instead, she has a list of special moves in her arsenal which comprises from Frenzied Kicks, Exploding Blood Strike and her ultimate art: Exploding Blood Strike, Rupture.

Frenzied Kicks: Nezuko Kamado releases two upward kicks followed up by a horizontal rotating kick right after.

Exploding Blood Strike: Nezuko Kamado lunges forwards and performs a knife hand thrust that leaves a trail of pink flames.

Exploding Blood, Rupture: Nezuko Kamado performs a drop kick at her opponent and drags them along the ground, followed up with a series of scratches from left to right and vice versa that slowly engulfs the ground on fire before finishing it off with a destructive axe-kick, uprooting and igniting the ground into crimson-pink flames.

As per usual, the skills and animation for Nezuko Kamado in the game is stunning and I’m pretty sure fans will be excited to see their favourite imouto be in the spotlight ever since her presence was pretty much non-existent when she was in her coma during Tanjiro’s training arc.

New Map

The new map which will feature in Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles would be the Entertainment District where the second season of the anime takes place in. The map is actually the aftermath of the battle against the Daki and Gyutaro siblings where you’re able to see some of the buildings being cut down and damaged.

Verdict

If you’re a big fan of the Second season of Demon Slayer then you’re going to love the Hinokami Chronicles DLC pack. The character animations and fight scenes are done really well and I personally would like it if they were to add a Season 2 Storyline instead of just adding in new characters and a map.

For more information on the game and its DLC, do check out the Demon Slayer Hinokami Chronicle’s official website here.